IELTS Writing Task 1: Table

Question

Please check my essay if you have time. Thank you so much.

Question:

Answer:

The table shows data about consumer expenditure in 3 different categories of items in 5 different countries in 2002.

Overall, consumers spent more on food, drinks and tobacco than any other categories in all 5 countries. Additionally, the category of leisure and education had the lowest proportion of consumer spending in all countries.

In 2002, the proportion of Turkey’s consumer expenditure on food, drinks and tobacco was 32.14%, which was the highest out of all 5 countries, while the figure for Ireland, being the second highest, was 28.91%. In contrast, Sweden had the lowest percentage of consumer spending on food, drinks and tobacco, at only 15.77%.

On the other hand, leisure and education accounted for no more than 5% of the national consumer expenditure in each of the 5 countries. Additionally, spending on clothing and footwear was the highest in Italy, at 9%, while the figures for the remaining countries averaged around 6%.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Please read my advice for Task 1 essays:

IELTS TASK 1: Hints, Tips And Advice

Vocabulary Words For Task 1: Reference Post

AlpheccaStars · Answer

The table shows data about (Vague, imprecise. What are the values in this table?) consumer expenditure in 3 (Use words, not digits for numbers that are not data values) different categories of items in 5 different countries in 2002. (What are the categories and countries?)

Overall, consumers spent more on food, drinks and tobacco than any other categories in all 5 countries. Additionally, the category of leisure and education (I am confused since you have not named the categories.) had the lowest proportion (You never said what was in this table) of consumer spending in all countries.

In 2002, the proportion of Turkey’s (I am confused because I do not know what other countries you are comparing Turkey to.) consumer expenditure on food, drinks and tobacco was 32.14%, which was the highest out of all 5 countries, while ~~the figure for~~ ("Figure" is generally not a good word for Task 1. Read my advice.) Ireland, being the second highest, was 28.91%. In contrast, Sweden had the lowest percentage of consumer spending on food, drinks and tobacco, at only 15.77%.

On the other hand, leisure and education accounted for no more than 5% of the national consumer expenditure in each of the 5 countries. Additionally, spending on clothing and footwear was the highest in Italy, at 9%, while the ~~figures~~ percentages / values for the remaining countries averaged around 6%.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

If you just copy the numbers from the table to your essay, you will not get the best score. You need to do some basic, simple, primary school arithmetic to do interesting comparisons.

Useful words for this essay:
Nationalities:

Turks - people of Turkey (Turkish people)
the Irish - people of Ireland
Spaniards - people of Spain (also the Spanish)
Swedes - people of Sweden
Italians - people of Italy

outlier - a data value that is significantly different than the others. It stands out.

range (verb, also a noun): the span of the extreme values for one measure.

fraction - a division used to make a descriptive comparison between two values.
e.g. A = 100 and B = 18. B is a small fraction of A.

threefold (adjective) = a factor of three greater

Essay for study purposes. This essay is too long, but gives some examples of vocabulary words.

My essay outline:

Paragraph 1: Describe the table and the column headings.
Paragraph 2: Write 2 or 3 main observations. (highest and lowest category, by average amounts, compare Turkey with Sweden.
Paragraph 3: Write some interesting details. (Include specific numbers from the table.)

Note that in paragraph 2, I added the total percentages for two countries, Turkey and Sweden. They were the highest and lowest. Also, I compared the categories by the average expenditures.

The table compares the percentages of total spending that people in five different countries allocated to three budget categories (food/drink/tobacco, clothing/footwear and leisure/education) in the year 2002. The countries listed are Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.

Overall, the totals for these three categories was less that half the household budget in all countries. Highest allocations were to "food, drink and tobacco," and lowest for "leisure and education" without exception.

In detail, Turkish people spent about 43% in total, with "food, drink and tobacco" having the highest outlay, 32.14%. Ireland was nearly as high, 28.91%, compared to the category average of 22%. Swedes had the least, 15.77%. In fact, they had the lowest combined total of about 24%. Spending on the other two categories was a comparatively small fraction of the total. Leisure / education was consistently under 5%, with Turkey having the highest value at 4.35%. And it was slightly lower than clothing and footwear, which ranged from 5.40 to 6.63% with the exception of Italy, an outlier at 9%.

IELTS Writing Task 1: Table

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